​​​​Opening associations of representatives to legal practitioners ​​ ​

As of today, legal practitioners are given the opportunity to join associations of representatives, thus ensuring equal treatment of professional representatives and legal practitioners.

Professional representatives are attorneys who have passed the European qualifying examination, whereas legal practitioners are lawyers in EPC contracting states who are authorised to practice in patent matters in their country.

Authorising representation through an association

Currently, representation in proceedings before the EPO can be undertaken by professional representatives before the EPO, by associations of representatives or by legal practitioners.

The authority to represent applicants is afforded to all registered members of an association duly registered with the EPO, without the need to authorise each individual member. The EPO has seen a steady increase in the number of representatives benefitting from the convenience of authorisation through their membership in an association. These associations are currently appointed to represent applicants in over 600 000 proceedings. Now legal practitioners can enjoy the same convenience by either joining associations with patent professionals or registering associations of their own with the EPO.

Freedom to form associations from 1 October

The EPO has removed the legal barrier that previously prevented legal practitioners from creating and being members of associations. As of today, legal practitioners will have the opportunity to join and create associations registered with the EPO, either together with professional representatives or other legal practitioners. Previously, legal practitioners could not be members of an association as this conflicted with the requirement for them to file an individual authorisation for every case. With the abolition of this requirement as a recent simplification measure, this legal barrier has been removed.  

Using MyEPO to create and administer associations

In another milestone in the EPO’s simplification and digitisation journey, the online service MyEPO now offers a self-service function for the creation and administration of associations. This is a further advance in the EPO’s simplification and digitalisation journey under Strategic Plan 2028.